Golding himself discusses the fact that this novel was a response, in some ways, to Ballantyne's novel "Coral Island," particularly in response to the way that it portrayed British boys as being immune to the pressures of savagery or the inner evil of human beings. Golding felt that it was unrealistic that they would not give in to the inner evil at least as frequently as any other people.

By creating the conflict within the novel Golding sets out his own version of how he feels that these boys will react to the conflict between savagery and civilization. Jack represents the evil within the boys and Ralph and Piggy represent the civilized side of things and the story is of course Golding's representation of how that conflict would play out.